Connection
by An Unknown Foreign Beauty
Summary: "We have a connection." Aladdin once told the Genie. But he and Jasmine had a lot deeper connection that he had ever imagined. Something in their pasts. Set in the live action universe.


**Connection**

_By- An Unknown Foreign Beauty_

_(Aladdin live action fanfic)_

They stood in a small alley next to the entrance of the market. The sun was setting in the horizon behind them, painting the sky with bright crimson, and the air was heavy with the scents of spices, sweat, and exotic perfumes, the perfume of life.

Jasmine pulled her dark grey cloak tight about her. It had become a common scenario of the young Sultana of Agrabah taking a stroll in the bazaar every now and then. Jasmine liked these evening strolls, meeting and greeting her subjects, learning their problems by herself.

She glanced at the man beside her. Aladdin was taking in the scenarios around them. His head was covered by a grey scarf, bound across his brow by a slim circlet of matching leather. He was still not comfortable with all the attention he seemed to gather from the commoners beside his royal fiancée. He was confident being a street rat, jumping and running across the allies, but walking in the same streets, treated as a royalty still made him feel uneasy. Sometimes she wondered if he missed being a commoner.

Today, both of them decided to take a stroll across the streets in disguise. It brought a strange sense of comfort, not being noticed by anyone. It feels like being invisible in the middle of the crowd, and Jasmine was thoroughly enjoying it.

"Have you ever been to Agrabah's markets before?" Aladdin whispered.

"No. Except for one time we were running away from the guards." She winked.

The memories of their first meeting bought a smile across the former street thief's lips. He grinned and pulled her closer. "Stay close. It's very much like a puzzle. Each year it changes, grows bigger and bigger. Even with your maps, you can't explore it on your own."

"And now I have every intention to leave you behind and explore on my own," Jasmine murmured.

"Really, _Sultana_?" Aladdin grinned, "Are you confident enough?"

"Yes." Jasmine pulled him by his collars in a quick kiss. "You know I can be lost here without you." She whispered against his lips.

"I don't know what to do without you either." Aladdin expelled a quick breath, his heart beating wildly beneath her palm. It was strange how a simple touch from her set his senses on fire.

"We have a lot to explore yet," Jasmine whispered.

A suggestive smile played across his lips, "I want to explore it with you in our room." He leaned in for another kiss, but Jasmine quickly shoved him away.

"Come with me." She rolled her eyes.

And then the young couple left the safety of the shadows and walked into the bustling crowds of Agrabah's most active outdoor market. To their right there were vendors selling food- dried fruits, honeyed dates, exotic spices imported from India. To their left, there were jars of jams were left for display- yam jams, date jams, and some others that even Aladdin couldn't name.

"Did you take your idea of jams from here?" Jasmine leaned closer and whispered in his ear.

"No..." Aladdin's ears reddened, and he put down the yam jam he was considering to buy. The vendor seemed disappointed, but Jasmine politely denied his offer and continued to enjoy among the hassle and bustle of the warm summer evening.

Until the rejected vendor leaped from behind his post and tried to shove the jar of jam into her hands. "You will enjoy this, young lady." he winked at her suggestively, "You must buy this." He walked close to the couple and leaned in to whisper into Jasmine's ear. "Let me tell you a secret. Yam Jams are considered as an aphrodisiac in the east."

"I think not." She shook her head, pushing his hands away.

He pulled her closer against him. "How can you tell if not you try it yourself?" He nodded towards Aladdin who was standing right behind him. "You man doesn't seem so happy with you."

"How can you tell," Aladdin said in a low tone.

The vendor smirked back at him. "I am not having a conversation with you. I am having a conversation with the most beautiful customer with whom I am sharing my secrets."

"No. You are having a conversation with my fiancée." His voice was as cold as ice, "I don't think she needs your advice. And it might be your last conversation in your lifetime."

Jasmine glared at the young man. "And if you want to sell me something, being a lecherous bastard is not the way to go about doing it." She shoved against his chest, hard.

"Whore," he muttered.

Aladdin froze. He closed his fingers into a fist so tightly, that his nails dragged into his palm.

Jasmine grabbed his arm and dragged him away. She could see the muscles of his jaw still ticking.

"You know, it's quite unusual," she remarked after they had cleared some distance, "I have never seen you losing your temper before."

He said nothing.

"Aladdin?"

"It's a crime, calling their sultana like that. He deserves to be flogged." His nostrils flared. "Why do they keep calling women like that?"

Jasmine lifted a shoulder. "It's the curse of being a woman," She joked in a grim manner. "Now come on. We can take care of him tomorrow in court. " She grabbed his hand and began to drag him across the streets. "I don't want to spoil our evening."

Aladdin took a deep breath and joined her in the stroll.

They continued strolling through the bazaar, and Jasmine was surprised to note that Aladdin now walked firmly in her shadow, with his hands clasped tightly behind his back. His eyes, which usually sparkled with joy, appeared lost of their cheerfulness.

She sighed to herself. She wondered what made him react like that. Surely as a street rat, he was called by many names, but she had never seen him so much angry. She wondered what made him react to this particular word.

They stopped near Aladdin old hovel. It had remained abandoned since their engagement. It was not acceptable for the sultana's future husband to stay in a hovel. So she asked Aladdin to move into the castle despite his protest. Still, this place remained a special place for both of them. There were so many memories.

They silently walked among the ruins; Jasmine blew away the dust from the floor as Aladdin settled on the top of the broken balcony. His gaze stretched towards the open city below, his fingers were playing with strings of the old oud.

"Aladdin…" Jasmine walked near him and placed a hand under his chin, forcing him to look at her. "What is it?"

Aladdin looked away. "He called you a whore."

"He will pay for it." Jasmine's jaw stiffened, "He didn't know with whom he was talking. I'll tell Hakim to teach him a lesson."

Aladdin let out an angry sigh. He jumped down from the balcony and looked at Jasmine, shaking his head violently.

"No, he has no right to call any woman a whore. They used to call my mother by that word."

Jasmine let out a careful breath. In the last two months of their courtship, Aladdin never talked about his parents. The only thing she knew that their mothers sang them the same lullaby when they were young.

"It is not new to me. My father said as much to me. Many times."

Jasmine could only stare at him. "Did your father also question whether or not you were his son?"

Aladdin lowered his head and sighed. His grip tightened around the oud.

She almost wished she hadn't asked him the question. _What kind of loveless childhood did he have?_

Aladdin put down the oud and leaned against the broken brick walls, his eyes downcast and his features holding a clear picture of shame.

Jasmine sat down next to him. She said nothing for a while, their quiet breaths remained the only sound in the room, and their minds kept wondering with unspoken thoughts.

Then he turned his head toward her. "Before our marriage…"

"Care to tell me?" She took his hand in hers.

Aladdin shot her a surprised gaze. Nobody ever asked him about his mother-the most important woman of his life, besides Jasmine.

"But…." He hesitated. Jasmine could feel his hand shaking in her grip. She laced her fingers into his and held it tight.

"Tell me."

He gave her a sideways glance, not wanting to meet her eyes, and his look of misery almost brought tears to her eyes.

Jasmine blinked back her tears, keeping his hand firmly in her grasp. "Please."

He nodded. "Before I start, I need you to know how sorry I am."

Her breath hitched in her throat. "For what?"

"For everything. For never telling you the truth."

"I don't—"

"It's a burden, Jasmine," he said in a hoarse whisper. "I don't want to lie about my past anymore. I am tired of pretending. But are you ready to accept me after everything I tell you?"

Jasmine inhaled carefully. "I won't say I wouldn't judge, but whatever lies in your past- I wish to know."

Aladdin studied the face of his beloved, her kind eyes always soothed him no matter how distressed he was. "My mother was the handmaid of the princess of Sherabad."

"Sherabad?" Jasmine gasped. Her mother's kingdom. If Aladdin's mother was the handmaid to the princess, did that meant….

"She came to Agrabah with the princess. She was only seventeen. She wanted a happy married life as the princess had with her husband here. She dreamt of a life like that. She fell in love with a palace guard. And they became intimate soon."

Jasmine laced his fingers through his. It was the greatest shame for an unmarried girl to be intimate with a man, even punishable by the law.

"The princess was very careful about her handmaid's reputation." Aladdin gazed into the sad eyes of his fiancée. "To save her reputation, she arranged her marriage with my father, a young vendor, who also had eyes for my mother. Soon after the marriage, I was born. But my father found about my mother's previous affair."

Jasmine watched Aladdin's weary eyes fade in recollection.

"I was five. I remembered every time my father shouted with my mother. But she stayed because of me. She didn't want me to grow without a father. But one night, my father simply vanished, leaving two of us fending for ourselves."

Jasmine's face hardened. "How could he do that?"

Aladdin's jaw tightened. He took a deep breath and shook his head. "I don't even want to remember his name. Besides, in the meantime, everyone in the neighborhood learned about my mother's past affairs. They began to call my mother a whore and me a bastard. And you can't imagine what a woman has to suffer when her reputation is stained."

"Didn't she go to find the princess? Her old friend?" Jasmine asked quietly.

A corner of his lips turned upward in bitter amusement. "She did. But the princess was dead too. And the sultan was drowned in grief. Nobody wanted to help a lowly servant and her son abandoned by her husband."

Her mother was the princess….Jasmine swallowed, looking away. She could remember her mother…lying bleeding on the road, a sword plunged deep into her chest.

Aladdin paused for a moment, trying to swallow the lump forming into his throat.

"We began to beg to live. Nobody wanted to give a job to a woman who had a reputation as a so-called whore. I started to steal sometimes. Mother always forbade me to do that. But I couldn't stand her hardship. But I always think my disobedience led her to her bad health."

"Aladdin…." Jasmine tightened her grip around his. He shuddered, pressing their joined hands to his forehead.

"I let her down, Jasmine. All I could think was how she'd died alone, with no one to offer her solace, no one to grant her comfort. No one who cared. Not even her son. She wanted to be proud of me. But I always let her down."

"You did not." Jasmine's eyes burned with unshed tears. She carefully laid her free hand across his face. She felt him leaning to her touch. "If she could see you today, she would be proud."

He withdrew his hand from hers and fell to silence.

"Aladdin…"

Aladdin looked up to gaze at his fiancée's eyes. "I am sorry." Jasmine brushed away the hot tears coursing down his cheeks. "My mother could have helped your mother then. But she was killed."

"Your mother?" Aladdin shot her a startled look, "Do you mean…."

"My mother was the princess of Sherabad." Jasmine tried to smile.

He turned to look at her with a sad half smile. "It seems, we had a connection long before we met." Then an overwhelming sense of fear began to engulf him to his core. "Jasmine, after everything you learned about me, would you—"

"No." Her voice was rough and laced with warning.

His heart tripped about in his chest, matching pace with his newfound connection with her. "Then you have not even considered—"

"No. I will not consider it." Jasmine reached for him with both hands, framing his chin between her palms. "There is no situation in which I will consider it."

Aladdin shook his head, though his shoulders trembled and his nails dug into his palms. "You are ridiculous, Sultana Jasmine. I am just a street thief. You are the Sultana of Agrabah, and you have a reputation."

"If you are just a thief, I am just a lawbreaker." Jasmine gripped his shoulders tightly, forcing him to look into her eyes. "Did you hear what I said, Aladdin?"

Aladdin closed his eyes, unable to meet the fierceness in her eyes. When he refused to respond, he felt her lips brush across his forehead.

"Look at me," Jasmine said, so soft and so close that it washed across his skin like rain the desert.

He opened his eyes.

She rested his brow against his. "I choose you, Aladdin. Always."

Aladdin pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. She pressed her cheek to his chest. She felt his lips brushing her ears, and whispering, "Thank you."

They didn't know how long they held each other, but when finally Jasmine freed herself from her embrace, she picked up his old oud. Leaning against Aladdin's chest she strung the strings with the magical tune their mother had taught them

_Mama zamanha gaya_

_Mama is coming  
She is coming in a little bit  
With her, she is bringing gifts_

And he listened to her magical voice until silver dawn broke across the horizon.

**Reviews? Faves?**

**I must say I loved the live action so much. It really expands the characters and their background. I read the novelization of the movie, and it explored more in their pasts. I always think there is a connection between Jas and Al even before they met. **

**This story is heavily inspired by the book "The Wrath and the dawn" by Renée Adiah. I love the story so much that I put some words and dialogues from the book. Plz don't sue me. I don't own Aladdin or The Warth and the dawn. All of these belong to their rightful owners.**

**I would love if you leave your thoughts and comments below. Faves will be awesome too. **


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